Renault Sport Formula One Team team driver Jolyon Palmer raced in tricky wet weather conditions for today’s Formula 1 Grande Prêmio do Brasil.

After an opening third of the race punctuated by safety car periods and red flags due to poor track conditions and race incidents, Jolyon made contact with Daniil Kvyat on lap 20 just before another red flag period during which the team inspected his car and decided to retire him due to suspension damage.

Jolyon started the race in P16 on new wet tyres. He stopped on lap 9 for a new set of intermediate tyres and on lap 17 for a new set of wet tyres.

Jolyon Palmer, #30, R.S.16-05: Started P16, DNF

“The conditions this afternoon were very difficult and unfortunately we had to retire following contact with Kvyat. I had some more grip at that point on full wet tyres and I was faster than cars in front on intermediates. I wanted to make up some places. In the end the visibility was so bad that I couldn’t even see past my steering wheel. I didn’t see where the corner went, I knew that there was the pitwall and pitlane somewhere; I just couldn’t see anything. Kvyat in front of me was slower and I hit him. Around the lap, the visibility wasn’t too bad and there were some places where you aquaplaned but coming up the hill you had no traction and couldn’t see if you were behind anyone else. You had to guess where you were going, there was water on track and rivers of water running across. It was really tricky.”

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

“It was a tough afternoon for the team and a tricky race in wet weather conditions for everyone. The biggest issue we encountered was the performance of our car with the full wet tyres. We weren’t able to perform over long stints with these sets of tyres and had to switch to intermediate tyres whenever it was possible but in the end it wasn’t enough for us to get into the points with Kevin. Unfortunately, Jolyon sustained front suspension damage when he hit Kvyat and we had to retire him. We are now looking forward to the ultimate race of the season in Abu Dhabi where I hope we can have a race in better conditions.”